NEW ZEALAND SUGAR COMPANY'S SUGAR REFINING WORKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7111, 1 September 1884, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND SUGAR COMPANY'S SUGAR REFINING WORKS.

Ox Saturday last we paid a visit to the New Zealand Sugar Company's Sugar Refining Works, Northcote, the whole of the arrangements having now been completed for commencing operations. Before immediately detailing our impressions, as gathered by an inspection of the extensive works of the company, it may not bo uninteresting to give a resum6 of the HISTORY OF THE SUGAR INDUSTRY IN THE COLONIES.

The history of the sugar industry in the Australian colonies for the past twenty-five years is intimately associated with their national history. In New South Queensland, and Fiji the cans has been successfully acclimatized, and the manufactured product is now a fruitful source of revenue, and one of the principal exports. A retrospective glance over that period would disclose one long series of - struggles, failures, and disappointments, to be crowned at last with unquestioned success. But experience has always to be purchased at a heavy cost, not alone of money, but of anxious thought. The pioneers of' the industry often struggled against their own hopes, and the present satisfactory result is their best tribute. _ The first attempts to establish the cultivation of the sugar cane in Now South Wales were made on the Macleay River, and after many struggles, the first failure bad to be admitted. A fresh start was made on the Clarence River, and here with muoh better results ; in faot, the cultivation of maize on this river has been almost entirely abandoned, the whole of the available land being now cultivated for the sugar cane, bugar cane cannot thrive against heavy frosts, and it has not been found advantageous to cultivate on rivers south of the Clarence. On this river, and to the northward on the Richmond and Tweed, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company of Sydney have established most extensive establishments. In Queensland the extension of the sugar cane cultivation has been most rapid. Certain of the coastal rivers were proved to be admirably suited for the growth of cane, and the colony is no w sending its manufactured product into competition against the rest of the world. In Fiji the cultivation of cotton has been abandoned for the cane, and the history of that colony is synonymous with the history of the sugar cane. In a necessarily brief sketch like the present no reference can be made to the conditions under which the industry is conducted in the different colouies. There are the main questions of climate, customs, excise duties, and the labour question, which would demand attention. Our remarks must apply nearer home, but it may be mentioned, in passing, that for several years past we in New Zealand have obtained nearly half our annual supplies of this daily food from our neighbours in Australia. The quantity of refined sugars imported to New Zealand for the last five years were received as follows Li

ORIGIN OP THE AUCKLAND SUGAR REFINING INDUSTRY.

The success of the Australian companies in preparing refined augurs, drew attention to the necessity of establishing a similar industry in our uational interest, and the matter having been energetically tr.ken up in this city and supported by wealth and influence, tho result was the present New Zealand Sufar Company.- The company has purchased largo estates in Fiji, and will there manufacture tho raw sugar, to be afterwards refined at the work* at Auckland. The quantity of raw sagar imported into New Zealand last year, including all places, only amounted to 577 tons! The Is'ew Zealand Sugar Company has already thin year paid duty amounting to £17,000, which represents an import of 3700 tons, and we are informed that the company has completed the purchase of 6000 tons additional from Java and 2000 tons additional from Fiji, to come forward for this season's operations. Early in ISS2, the company having acquired a Urge freehold at Northcote, commenced the erection of their refinery premises, and these works have given employment to fully 150 permanent workmen cinco that period. The consequent large expenditure has, no doubt, aided to maintain the prosperity of our city and district, and we are proud of the last great manufacturing industry established in oar midst. The company have intimated that they will be prepared to offer refined sngar for sale next month ; we therefore accepted an invitation from Mr. Brewster, the energetic General Manager of the company, to visit

THE SUGAR REFINING WORKS. On arriving at the Sugar Company's Wharf we were met by the working manager of the Sugar Refining Works, Mr. James Muir, who gave us a hospitable and kindly welcome, and under whose courteous guidance we were taken through the whole establishment, and over the company's estate. The company only broke ground on the 12th January, 18S3, bat one conld not bat be struck with the immense changes which had been effected in that period, completely altering the appearance of the locality. We could appreciate the chahge the more as having formed one of the party who visited Duck Creek (as it was called) with the members of the Harbour Board, when they went to iaspect the site in order to decide as to leasing a portion of the foreshore to the company for reclamation purposes. An immense cutting has been made through the old point or headland, the earth, some 120,000 cubic yards, being used for reclamations. On the site of this cutting the Sugar Refining Works have been built. Abont a million and a-half ■ of bricks have been manufactured on the ground from the olay seams in the vicinity, and used in the erection of the tefinery, and for the dams or reservoirs. WHARVES, OFFICES, RAW SUGAR BOND, &c. There are two wharves run out, each 210 feet long, with an outward jetty to the wharves 330 feet in length. There is a depth of water at wharfage at low spring tides of 21 feet. The wnarf foundations slaud on the solid rock. It was necessary to blut out the holes for the piles with dynamite, a work which was accomplished with great difficulty. On the shipping wharf are long jib hydraulio crane, and hydraulio jigger tor discharging ships. The hydraulio piping for snpply and return water is carried up on the outward jetty and thence along the two shipping tees. As soon as the water bas actuated this hoisting plant it returns again to the engine and accumulator to be once compressed for action, so that no water is lost. Starting from tbe wharf towards the refinery, we observed that the long stretchof jetty is thoroughly fenced in on either side, so that any accident seems well nigh impossible. At the end of jetty and close to augar stores is placed one of Pooley and Son's largest sized weighbridges, over which all sugar inwards and outwards is run. Thelever of weighbridge stands inside tbe office, and the weighing indicator can be read by the weighingclerk and Customsofficer simultaneously. In this office are rooms for the manager of the refinery, the engineer, delivery and weighing clerk and Cuatoms officer. At the present time Mr. Muir is using a tramway between the ship and bonded store, and he is sanguine he will be able to do the work cheaper by rail than any other method. Close beside the office, at the end of Jetty, is a portion of a new building in process of ercction, and this, we learn, ia an extension of ths raw sugar bond lately decided on by the company. When this extension is finished it will enabtathe company to store -10,000 tons of the raw material. In the raw sugar bond is stored at the present time between 3000 and 4000 tons of raw sugar, the stack or block of sugar packages being 32 feet high. The work of storing is done by hydraulio jiggers, and here runs the hydraulic main pipes to supply the power to three stacking jiggers and one lifting cage as they pass on their way to wharf, crane, and jigger. FACTORY BUILDINGS. Looking at the buildings from the harbour they appear to be massed together in one large square block, and this mainly they are, the workshop and general store being only detached. This, we understand, is not urau in sugar r< fineries, the stores, as a role, being detached. The arrangement of placing the store so close to the refinery proper is to save labour in handling the raw material. Between the refinery and raw sugar bond is a raised floor, to which Is connected au hydraulio cage. This cage lifts two tons each lift of raw sugar on to the raised floor,

called « cutting in platform, from the work here performed—the catting open of the baskets or package* containing the raw ■agar. BUGAR-BEFTNING PROCESSES. The sugar from here passes through an opening in the floor into the " blow-ups" or melting pans, and here the first operation in refining commences. The hydraulic cage for this raised floor or platform can lift 100 tons per day if necessary. The melting pans, two m number, hold each a boat six tons of ■agar, and are charged every half hour. They are anpplied with hot and cold water pipes, also with sweet water and syrup pipes. They each contain 120 feet of solid drawn 5-inch copper coil, closed—no open steam is now nued in refining sngar. They are provided with two 4-inch steam inlet ▼alves each, and outlet steam traps, and are also provided with strong mechanical agitators, as the sugar is melted to about 150 deg. Fah., and agitation is required to melt it at m low a temperature. High heat destroys sagar rapidly, and Mr. Muir is of opinion that the freezers should turn their attention to sngar as well as meat. All salts will drop oat of water in crystals under severe fret zing. The melting pans are provided with a false bottom that allows the liqaor to ran off, and retains a considerable portion of the refuse contained in the raw sngar, sach as bits of cane, small stones, sand, and other dirt. In the melting pans the liquor is made to a certain density, suitable for filter- | ing, generally from 25 to 30 Banme gauge. The sugar most now be spoken of as liquor on its further progress through the refinery. From the melting pans the liquor passes rapidly on to cloth filters, known as the Taylor filter, and here we are into the refinery proper. This building—two sides of brick and two sides of cast-iron columns and iron — is 90 feet by 60 feet, and contains blow -up pans, bag filters, bag washing tanks, vacuum pans, heaters, two vacuum engines and pumps, one large pumping engine for injecting water to vacuum pans drawn from the end of the coal wharf, four large centrifugals, and engines and railway from heaters to machinery, all of which we may briefly allude to, but meantime we had better return to the liquor which we left running on to the Taylor filters. These filters are large, close compartments, mode like the melting-pans, of cast-iron. They are erected in combination, std a door opens into each compartment. Each compartment holds 170 bottles —so named from toeir resembiance to the neck of a bottle. To these bottle necks are tied the filtering bags. These bags are made of bent Orleans cotton, double twilled, in diameter aboat two feet, and seven feet _ long, and are inclosed in the filter inside of flax-sheaths, about nix inches in diameter, and when hanging to these several bottles are like so many large puddings. Each bag gives a very largo amount of filtering suriace, the liqaor as the bag fuuls always rushing to the clean surface. These bags, when thoroughly foal, aie taken out and washed in tanks provided for the purpose. In England the residuum of these bags is utilised, but in this new land it runs to waste. The bag filters are provided with run-off valves, run-off gutters, steam coils ineide and steam connection outside. The tanks for washing bags have hot and cold water connections, and mangling > rollers driven by steam power. The liqaor now cleansed thoroughly of all its mechanical impurities is collected in cast - iron receivers in a sunken cellar, and to these receivers are attached an ' arrangement of pumps which lift the liquor into immense cast-iron receivers in the top of the char cylinder or char filtering house, and if we are :o follow the coarse of the liquor we must leave the department we are in for the present and enter

THE CHAR r>EI'ABTIIK>'T of the refinery. The char cylinder houce is go named as it contains 20 immense castiron cylinders 10 feet diameter and IS feet deep. This building is entirely of heavy brickwork, and is about 90 feet hii>h and 60 feet square. Each cylinder when filled with charcoal and liqnor or water, is 50 tons weight, so that massive cast-iron columns are used forjsupporting the structure Following our guide, Mr. Muir, we begin at the top and come down, so that we may keep the liquor in sight as much as possible. But it would seem aa if we rcqoired to make some digression here ; for this department, with its arrangements for handling the charcoal and getting it ready to receive the sugar liquor, needs serious attention, and we must ask indulgence if we at times seem a little discursive. Animal charcoal itself and ita action on sugar solution ia a subject of great interest, and is still a subject occupying the close attention of some of our best men of science. But into this we cannot enter here further than to say that animal charcoal is made from the calcined bones of animals and ita properties for purifying solutions fiber than sugar is well known. The filtering medium in ordinary house filters is animal charcoal, preceded by a sponge. This building, then, oootains two roofs, with a sort of Chinese pagoda on the top of the top roof. Nut a few of the observing citizeosof Auckland have condemned this arrangement as a very absurd way to roof a building, and we now leara from Mr. Muir that it was not intended as a thing of beauty, but that its shap« and space op to the very ball on the top plays an important part in the handling of the charcoal, which is of such importance in the purifying of sugar solutions. The charcoal is reborn ed or revivified in kilns desciibed further on, and as the char from tbe kilns is delivered on the bottom floor it is raised up to the Chinese pagoda on the second roof by a large blast fan—puffed up aa it were. All the space up to the ball on the top is utilised, and from this point the blast after raising the charcoal at the rate of twenty-five tons per honr begins to expand itself. The chsrcoal ascends the blast pipe, which is twenty inches in diameter, very rapidly, and is thoroughly cooled and r»reified in its ascent, a matter of great importance in connection with the work it has to perform afterwards. Under the pagoda the charcoal is collected into a receptacle, and from thence it runs into tbe 20 strong cast iron cylinders by means of shoots. Under the second roof the dost is filtered from the charcoal, and collected, as the dust in any quantity hinders proper filtration. Tho char cylinders being fillvd with the charcoal are ready for action, and here again we meet the liquor. The liquor having been received in large cast-iron receivers that stand in this build-

ing, raised above tbe char cylinders, now ruaa on to char io cylinders, and, for some days, tbe cylinders cbargrd keep delivering the puiified liqcor, now sborn of all its dirtybrown imparities, and which may now be considered tbe purest article consumed by man as an article of food. _ Along with the c&st-iron receivers for liqaor are also all the water receptacles for hot and cold water for washing the char filters, and indeed doing all the work of the refinery and it is conveyed about the building in a seemingly endless arrangement of cast iron and copptr pipes. One ton of sugar requires 1000 gallons of water. The liquor after passing over the charcoal now leaves this department and return* by an arrangement of syphon pipes back to receivers that stand inside tbe bailding in which it was first melted, and here again we must take leave of it for a time. Each cylinder of char runs a certain amount of liquor nntil its action is clogged—in other words a certain amount of charcoal can only purify a certain amount of liquor—a ton of charcoal is required for a ton of sugar. When the charcoal is spent it is taken out of cylinders by duors at the bottom and conveyed to kilns -*and ia here purified by the action of intense heat. Between two rows of cylinders runs a passage five feet wide, and in this passßge is hung an overhead endless railway, on which runs a one-wheeled truck. This method baa to. be resorted to as the charcoal is eagily craihed. This one-wheeled truck conveys the spent charcoal to the kilns, and sweeps round all this building. The char kiln-house is closely attached to the cylinder house, is 60 feet loug by 42 feet wide, and is simply a combioation of bricks and iron. It contains over 600 tons of cast iron. There are eight kilns, and each kiln contains 68 vertical pipes of oval shape. These pipes may be said to be as thoroughly surrounded by fire as it is possible for them to br, and are heated equally all round, being fitted with a great number of dampers for the equalisation of the heat. Through these pipes the charcoal percolates, and is heated as desired for revivification. Under the furnace and opposite every vertical pipe is fitted a cooling pipe, ai the charcoal after heating must be cooled withont exposure to thb atmosphere. On to these cooling pipes an iogeuious arrangement ia fitted for measuring off the quantity of charcoal burned and cooled every 30 minutes; from this measuring apparatus the charcoal falls into a large receiver, and from under the receiver it is carried on an endless travelling band back to tbe blast pipe, to be

raised again to the receptacle imder the nacodafor further action in the char cylinder. or filters. The hydrinHo presapre pipe here is to work a cage for raising the ooala to the firee and other work. On a castiron floor under the char *w situated the mills for the prepawteon of the oharcoaL The bottom floor of the cylinder house, which is also of cast-iron plates, contuns the blast fan and feeding -apparatus for nme, also travelling bands from char kiln, and » laige homontsl engine to do the work of this department aJone. Xhe department is the largest to be found in any" of the three refinenes south of the Idne, and is a costly piece of work. In the char filters ro cylinders there are 300 tons of metal (cast iron) alone. In the whole departmeut there are abont 1200 tons of cast iron. The char department is eqnal to 600 tons of refined sugar weekly. We are now on the bottom floor of the char department* and we step through a door, and find we are back at the Taylor filters, and that here, too, we are standing on a cast iron floor* TKX VACUUM TAXS, -ETC. Ur. Muir thinks we had better ascend by the stairs and renew our acquaintance with the track we left the liquor taking, and, consequently, we pass the vacuum pans, and across a span bridge on to a detached raised platform, carrying all the fine liquor . receiver*, i.e., thoroughly purified over the ' charcoal. Over these receivers is an arrangement of pipes, valves, and gntters for sending the liquor into various receptacle*. The liquor is here ready for drawing into the vacuum pans to be crystallised. Tbe vacuum pans, two in number, and each containing 400 feet of solid drawn copper coils for steam, can produce at each skipping about 7 ton* of dry sugar—sugar is boiled in vacuo, owiog to its liability to be ruined by heat. Each pan has a large air pump and condenser attached, and they are wrought od the Torricellian principle. The boilicgrangesfrom SOdeg to 170deg Fah. as required. Dnder the pans are the heaters, two semicircular dishes, not unlike an egg cut in two. Thesb beaters are supplied with strong mechanical agit&ting gear, to keep the boiled mus in a propt-r state of disintegration snitable for the centrifugal machines. We now pas to the bottom floor and learn that the hangiDg railway and wagon conveys the sugar mass from the heaters to the centrifugals and in these machines the crystals are purged of the mother liquor or syrup. The crystals are discharged through the bottom of machines into the waggon that conveys it to the lifting csgD in the tine sugar store. The discharged syrup also passes away in a gutter from the bottom, to be farther operated on in the refinery and to furtheryield crystalised sugar. In this building are two air-pump engices, one large diagonal engine for centrifugals, one large pumping engine for injecting water to pans, Sir William Armstrong's hydraulic engine and accumulator, and one vertical engine for liquors and water. The steam after actuating the engines it used for all tbe cleansing and boiling work of the refinery. FINE SUGAR STORE.

We now pass into a portion of the building designated " the fine sagar store." This building is of brick, with kauri floors aud ntroDg cast iron columns, and contains fonr flats or floors. Into this building the refined uupar is lifted to the top floor from the centrifugal machines by a pair of combined hydraulic cages, the sugar being conveyed in trucks, which ran on to the cage aforesaid. The track with its load being landed on the top floor, the truck is emptied through a hatchway, the sngar falling on to a scrnpulonsly clean floor underneath. This floor is divided off into bins, to separate tho different qualities. These bins will bold from 29 to 40 tons each. From these bins the sugar falls through a shoot into packing bags on floor underneath, and thence on delivery floor at the bottom, and may bo there stacked or delivered as the case may be. MISCELLANEOUS. Outside of the refinery block are placed five 30 horse power steam boilers, Green's patent fuel economisers, and chimney stack, which is 126 feet high by 7 feet internal diameter; also two benches, retorts for making animal charcoal and gas to light the works, gasometer, 4c. There is also a workshop, with lathes, planing machine, drilling machine driven by a Tangye engine and boiler, and engineers store for general goods. The coal wharf is 450 feet long, on which are wrought two self-discharging two-ton trucks, drawn up the incline by an hydraulic winding engine. The trucks stand on weighing machines at the ship's side while being loaded. The retorts for the manufacturing of the charcoal are six in number, and are the same as used in all gas works. The retorts are two feet in diameter. To keep the charcoal | clear of dirt the retorts are fixed in front and I charged at the back. Gas is produced from the bon<s to light the whole of the works, and they were lit up for the first time on Friday night last. The gasometer is 20 feet in diameter by 12 feet. The manager of the Auckland Gas Works recommended purifying with oxide of iron. The company are o&ering £5 per ton for bones, and we trust the settlers will wake up and keep them supplied. The makers of the plant for the refinery are Merilees, Watson, and Co., Glasgow, the well-known furnishers of sngar factories ; J. and R. Houston, Blake, Barclay and Co.. McLean, Angus, and, Co., all of Greenock. Mr. Joseph Clayton,' of Preston, England, supplied the steam boilers. The laboratory plant (now being erected at the Co.'a offices. Customs-street tiast) was supplied by wellknown English makers. ■ The engineers' tools wero tupplied by Tangye Brothers, and Auckland herself has been requisitioned to the extent of £30,000 or £40,000 for timber and goods alone, £30,000 additional having been paid in wages. THE RESERVOIRS. An ample supply of good water is one of the first considerations at a sngar refinery, as a ton of sugar requires in the various processes 1000 gallons of water. The company's estate, about 185 acres in extent, runs back up the valley, commanding both aides of the creek and the watershed. The lower dam, which feeds the boilers, is about two acres in extent, the " batter" of the embankment being faced with brickwork. Some heavy cnttings were effected near the upper dam, in order to reclaim x roadway to the dam below. The lower dim contains the rainfall, bnt a nice stream of running water falls into the upper dam, which is 26 feet in depth, and it is this water which is used for the sugar refining purposes. THE TOWNSHIP. The company have formed quite a little township for the accommodation of their employes. It is situated on a spar, the drainage going into the gnllies on either side. The houses are laid ont in one street, facing each other, built on sections with 66 feet frontages, and proportionate depth. They are£3s in number, and range from two to five rooms, the company desiring to have its employes comfortably housed, so as to Been re a good class of workmen around the works. A number cf the men having friends in the city prefer to lodge in Auckland, and go to and fro by the ferry steamer. A comfortable villa residence, commanding a beautiful view of the harbour, has been erected for the workiog manager (Mr: Mnir), while the old homestead of the former property of the point (Mr. Matthews) has been shifted further up the slope, and will be occnpied by Mr. Jndd the officer of H.M. Customs), who will be permanently stationed at the works. The company have also built a store, which is let to and rnn by a private individual at his own risk, as the company resolutely sets its fact, against tbe "truck" system, an example which might be followed with advantage by some other Auckland companies. Tbe men are paid for their work, and are free to get their goods where and how they please. There is another private store on tbe northern side of the township. A private school has recently been established, which will be of service in the education of the children. A Send ay-school is already in existence, while Divine service is alio performed at the Sugar Works for the benefit o! tbe employes. The Anglicans have secured a church site adjacent, so that the little township is regarded aa having an excellent future before it. As showing the advantage the residents of the district have derived from the establishment of the sugar refining industry in their midst, it may be mentioned that property in the district has gone np over 100 per cent, tiuce the New Zealand Company commenced its operations.

The erection of the Sugar Works, wharves, dams, residences, &c., has bem carried oat by the company's own under the supervision of Mr. Muir, the working manager. Mr. Mnir belongs to Greenock, Scotland, and entered (first into the sugar refinery business in 1857. He is * nephew of the late Mr. Blake, Sogar Be-

fineiy Architect . —-=5^ denaedmany improvement/if^** - ' »ho ing machinery and ta pt nS. has erected many oft£» hS? fiik home and abroad. Tfan •JS® Be *i«e ■* cUy, and &X.' refinery in flongkon*. I*? \J^7l**, south of the line to M «r n? - Joshua Brothers, of London. W.- e * w *- quently transferred to *°Ue. 6% and erected the Bj £r y i- mnd mondJfaver, Jus latest nndoX;£ the erection of the woriTV># A g Zealand Sugar Cornel which in tbe pr=MntVrtid 8 _„ A ? ck Wj, deavoured to describe. Mr «»■ very ablya«drted by Mr. G^Sa. 1 engineer of tbe refinery, aodfl, it? o ®. ton, foreman of the carpenters. m/^R" has been in the sugar trade as anLr?*« r for a considerable tone. Mr. W tong engaged as contractor

Tottl From TotU Duty Year. Imported. Australia. Value. Paid. 'l'onp. Tons. £ £ 1531 22,041 . 8,OSS 555,023 7S.C93 1682 15,252 7,061 478.098 79.14S 1883 19,810 8,327 (304,491 88.3S8